Essential is the keyword. After watching Minimalism on Netflix, we have to wonder what it’s like living with the bare necessities. What would happen if we traveled with one small baggage for all our trips? In the documentary, the two men go on a road tour talking about their lifestyle. Both men arrive at the hotel with a just duffle bag of their belongings for the next few months. Small, light, manageable luggages for trips are both environmentally and personally beneficial. Environmentally : If the bags are heavy then more fuel is needed to fly the plane resulting in more greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases, mainly Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, and Fluorinated Gases, are responsible for the greenhouse effect, which ultimately leads to global warming. Personally : Traveling with less things can reduce stress and you appreciate the things you do bring along. Rather than having multiple shirts, you have 5-7 that you enjoy wearing. Shoes - depending on where you are going and what you are doing - 2 should suffice. They also weigh the most so reducing the amount of shoes means a lighter bag. We are conditioned to believe that we need a new outfit everyday. This is not always the case. Less clothes helps save time and money and changing your mindset can help you realize that less is better! Minimalism while traveling will allow you to focus on the place you are and not what you have or intend on bringing home. To live in the moment, with no worries of keeping track of all your items, is a whole different type of traveling. Do you travel simliar to this lifestyle, what are your thoughts?

Imagine traveling without visa problems! Unfortunately, visas are here to stay but working in these places with a Digital Nomad Visa makes working abroad easier. Digital nomads are people who work online/remotely from foreign countries. They’re dependent on internet connection and hotspots. Digital nomads aren’t the full-time travelers you’re thinking about (ie. Affiliate Marketers or ‘Influencers’). They are Programmers, Website Developers, SEO Specialists, Social Media Marketers, Customer Support Representatives, and Entrepreneurs. Working remotely seems easier to grasp after thousands of companies have gone remote due to COVID19. Working in another country is just that extra step that some people take. It is hard to find these countries that validate expats working online. ========================================= Barbados is an island in the Caribbean, near the coast of Venezuela. Recently, they opened applications for their 12-month Welcome Stamp Visa . A special visa for remote workers who want to work and live in Barbados. They make sure you are able to financially support yourself by certifying you expect to earn an income of US$50,000.00 or more over the next 12 months and/or have the means to support yourself, your spouse and dependents accompanying you, during your stay in Barbados. Also, due to the online work declaration, you need to confirm that you, or you dependant(s) will not accept any employment from or offer any services to a citizen, permanent resident, immigrant, work permit holder or any person or entity carrying on business in Barbados. If accepted there is an individual fee of US $2000 or family bundle fee of US $3000. Other than these terms and conditions, it is fairly easy to apply! Below is a letter from the Prime Minister Mottley: Welcome to Barbados! On behalf of our beautiful island of Barbados, I would like to extend a warm welcome to you. Although the COVID 19 pandemic has been a tremendous challenge to people around the world, we believe it has also opened up opportunities. We recognise more people are working remotely, sometimes in very stressful conditions, with little option for vacation. Our new 12 month Barbados Welcome Stamp, a visa that allows you to relocate and work from one of the world’s most beloved tourism destinations. We believe we have something very special to offer on this little rock we call Barbados. Our friendly people, professional services, commitment to education and importantly safety and security, all make Barbados an ideal place to live for both singles and families. Thank you for considering making Barbados your new home. Blessings, Mia Amor Mottley, Q.C., M.P. Prime Minister of Barbados ========================================== Estonia is 1 of 26 Schengen countries in Europe. It is in northern Europe, near Finland and bordering Russia and Latvia. The Digital Nomad Visa allows remote workers to live in Estonia and legally work for their employer or their own company registered abroad. Eligibility includes: you’re able to work independent of location, perform your work duties remotely using telecommunications technology, have an active employment contract with a company registered outside of Estonia, conduct business through your own company registered abroad, or work as a freelancer for clients mostly outside of Estonia, and can provide evidence that your income met the minimum threshold during the six months preceding the application. Currently, the monthly income threshold is €3504 (gross of tax). The state fee is 80€ for a Type C (short stay) visa and 100€ Type D (long stay) visa. Below they explain their reasoning: “Digital nomads and remote workers have long faced ambiguity when working while they travel, often skirting the law by working while visiting a country with a tourist visa. But as of August 1, 2020, eligible location-independent workers can apply for the chance to come to Estonia to live for up to a year with peace of mind that they can legally work. Estonia has already transformed the way a country serves people beyond its borders through programmes such as e-Residency. Now with the Digital Nomad Visa, Estonia is transforming how people in the world choose to work.” ================================================ Next on the list….Croatia? Dutch entrepreneur Jan de Jong, in Split, Croatia has been sharing her progress in encouraging Croatia to accept Digital Nomad Visas. On May 5, she presented the concept of digital nomad tourism as a tourism strategy for Croatia at a conference. Citing Estonia, she published an open letter to Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic for the consideration. We can’t wait to see what happens, and wish her the best of luck paving the way for Digital Nomads!

In the United States, 98.4% of the people living there are descendants of immigrants or immigrants themselves. Many of their ancestors have faced racism or other hardships simply due to their origin from those who settled there beforehand. It's a vicious circle dating back to the 1600s when the British and other Europeans began to flock to the ‘new land’. Not too long after, they enslaved Africans and brought them against their will. In the mid-1800s, the Asians started entering the country only to be barred 30 years later as part of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Asian Exclusion Act of 1924 . Only in 1952 did the McCarran-Walter Act formally end the exclusion of Asian immigrants to the United States. In the mid-1990s, after World War II, the US faced labor shortages. The US and Mexico created the Bracero Program, which allowed Mexican agricultural workers to enter the United States temporarily to boost the economy. In the late 1950s, the US admitted over 3 million refugees from Hungary after a failed uprising against the Soviets. The list goes on and while there are more in-depth details to immigration and enslavement, it demonstrates that a majority of Americans arrived from all over the world. Immigrants bring diversity and innovation to America. It is the reason Sergey Brin (Co-founder of Google), Levi Strauss (Fashion Icon), Jan Koum (Co-founder and CEO of Whatsapp), Madeleine Albright (First woman to be the US Secretary of State) , Joseph Pulitzer (Pulitzer Prize founded by Joseph after his impressive career in journalism), and others had the opportunity to change the world. It is the reason companies can easily create diverse teams to expand globally. To simply declare English as the official language has fundamental flaws. In regards to the Constitution : From Issue Council : “ an official English language violates equal protection in court. If the government is not required to provide someone with appropriate language services, this may significantly undermine their ability to defend themselves, thus undermining equal protection in court. This would refer to the Fourteenth Amendment the Constitution promises. ” The ACLU argues that adopting English-only would deprive people of this right - they might not be able to defend themselves effectively in a courtroom. It also affects the First Amendment, as communication with the government and the right to equality is threatened. From ACLU : “‘English Only’ laws, which declare English to be the country's official language and bar government employees from providing non-English language assistance and services, are inconsistent with both the First Amendment right to communicate with or petition the government, and the right to equality. They are also unnecessary and sometimes even dangerous to both individuals and the public. Currently enforced in eighteen states, some ‘English Only’ laws are written so broadly that they forbid non-English government services such as assistance to recipients of benefits, applications for drivers' licenses, and bilingual education. Current ‘English Only’ laws are based on the false premise that today's immigrants who come from Asian and Spanish-speaking countries will not learn English without government coercion. In fact, the vast majority of Asian and Latino immigrants are acquiring proficiency in English just as quickly, if not faster, than earlier generations of Italian, Russian and German immigrants. Moreover, only 4% of the U.S. population over the age of five does not speak English. The problem is not that immigrants are unwilling to learn English, but that there are not enough available educational resources for them. Today, many thousands of immigrants throughout the country are on the waiting lists for adult English classes. English-only laws do nothing constructive to increase English proficiency, they simply discriminate against and punish those who have not yet learned English.” In regards to Civil Rights : From Cornell Law School : " Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, ancestry, national origin or ethnicity. Section 601 of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bans discrimination based "on the ground of race, color, or national origin," in "any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” Title VI of the Civil Rights Act provides the foundation for ensuring nondiscrimination in all federal programs and services, including those provided to language minorities. " In regards to diversity : At a young age, we learn the United States is a “melting pot” or “salad bowl” of different cultures. As a sign of respect to all the immigrants they descend from, the U.S. should not limit its citizens to one language. Their ancestors may have been forced to speak English but the fear of discrimination based on their origin in an outdated concept - both legally and socially. While the majority of the population can and do speak English there are other languages that are spoken by millions that would not be represented. According to Babbel , the most spoken languages other than English is Spanish with 43,200,000 native speakers, Chinese (including Cantonese, Mandarin and other varieties) with 2,900,000 native speakers, Tagalog with 1,610,000 native speakers, and Vietnamese with 1,400,000 native speakers. A failure to r epresent at least 49 million people speaking another language as their mother tongue is legally detrimental. In perspective that is more than the size of the 2010 estimated population of the Census Bureau's Pacific Region (California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii) at approximately 47.8 million. The 2019 US Census Bureau's estimate of the Northeast ( Connecticut , Maine , Massachusetts , New Hampshire , Rhode Island, Maryland, Vermont, Delaware , New Jersey , New York , and Pennsylvania) population minus Maryland totaled around 49 million. With 'English Only' laws these two densely populated regions theoretically would not be equally represented. That is mind-blowing! Tell us your thoughts below!